1“Now this is the commandment, the statutes and ordinances that Adonai your God commanded to teach you to do in the land you are crossing over to possess—

2so that you might fear Adonai your God, to keep all His statutes and mitzvot that I am commanding you and your son and your son’s son all the days of your life, and so that you may prolong your days.

3Hear, therefore, O Israel, and take care to do this, so that it may go well with you and you may increase mightily, as Adonai the God of your fathers has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.

Shema Israel, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad

4“Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one .

5Love Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

6These words, which I am commanding you today, are to be on your heart.

7You are to teach them diligently to your children, and speak of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up.

8Bind them as a sign on your hand, they are to be as frontlets between your eyes,

9and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

When You Prosper, Do not Forget

10“Now when Adonai your God brings you into the land that He swore to your fathers—to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—to give you great and good cities that you did not build,

11and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns dug that you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant, and you eat and are full,

12then watch yourself so that you do not forget Adonai, who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery.

13You must fear Adonai your God and serve Him, and swear by His Name.

14You must not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples around you;

15for Adonai your God in the midst of you is a jealous God. Otherwise the anger of Adonai your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you from the face of the earth.

16“You are not to test Adonai your God, as you tested Him at Massah.

17Diligently keep the mitzvot of Adonai your God, and His testimonies and His statutes that He has commanded you.

18You are to do what is right and good in the sight of Adonai, so that it may go well with you and you may go in and possess the good land that Adonai swore to your fathers—

19to drive out all your enemies from before you, as Adonai has spoken.

When Your Son Asks

20“When your son asks you in time to come, saying ‘What are the testimonies and the statutes and the ordinances that Adonai our God commanded you?’

21then you are to tell your son, ‘We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and Adonai brought us out from Egypt with a mighty hand.

22Before our eyes Adonai showed signs and wonders, great and terrible—on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his house.

23Then He brought us out from there so that He might bring us in, to give us the land that He swore to our fathers.

24Adonai commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear Adonai our God—for our good always, to keep us alive, as is the case this day.

25It will be righteousness to us, if we take care to do all this commandment before Adonai our God, just as He has commanded us.’